SEO tools show hundreds of metrics. Domain authority. Keyword difficulty. Backlink velocity. Content scores. Technical SEO grades.
Most of it doesn't matter for business decisions.
Here's the framework: Business metrics > Outcome metrics > Leading indicators > Vanity metrics
Let me break down what's actually worth tracking.
The metric hierarchy
Tier 1: Business metrics (what actually matters)
These are the only metrics that determine if SEO is worth your investment.
Organic revenue
The ultimate metric. Money generated from organic traffic.
- For e-commerce: Direct revenue from organic visitors
- For lead gen: Revenue from leads that came from organic
- For SaaS: MRR/ARR from organic-sourced customers
How to track: Connect Google Analytics to your CRM or e-commerce platform. Track revenue by traffic source.
Organic conversions
Actions that lead to revenue:
- Leads submitted
- Sign-ups completed
- Purchases made
- Demos requested
Track: GA4 conversion events, segmented by organic traffic.
Organic customer acquisition cost (CAC)
Total SEO investment / Customers acquired from organic
Lower is better. Compare to paid CAC to evaluate channel efficiency.
Tier 2: Outcome metrics (prove SEO is working)
These show SEO progress even before revenue impact is clear.
Organic traffic
Total sessions from organic search. The most commonly tracked SEO metric.
Track: GA4 → Acquisition → Traffic acquisition → Organic Search
Important nuance: Traffic without conversions is vanity. Always pair traffic with conversion rate.
Organic traffic growth rate
Month-over-month or year-over-year growth percentage.
Healthy SEO programs show:
- 10-20% MoM growth in early months
- 5-10% MoM growth in mature programs
- Compounding year-over-year growth
Keywords ranking page 1
Count of target keywords where you hold a top 10 position.
Track: SEO tool (Ahrefs, SEMrush) or manual tracking for key terms.
More page 1 rankings = more visibility = more traffic opportunity.
Related reading:
- Measuring SEO ROI — Full ROI calculation guide
- Why Your SEO Isn't Working — What metrics reveal about problems
Tier 3: Leading indicators (early signals of progress)
These metrics move before traffic/rankings improve. Track them to verify effort is working.
Impressions
How often your pages appeared in search results (even without clicks).
Track: Google Search Console → Performance → Total impressions
Why it matters: Impressions increase before clicks. If impressions are flat, you're not gaining visibility.
Click-through rate (CTR)
Clicks / Impressions. How often people click when they see your result.
Track: Search Console → Performance → Average CTR
Benchmarks:
- Position 1: 25-35% CTR
- Positions 2-3: 10-20% CTR
- Positions 4-10: 2-10% CTR
Low CTR for your position = your title/description needs work.
Indexed pages
How many of your pages Google has indexed.
Track: Search Console → Coverage → Valid pages
Why it matters: Pages that aren't indexed can't rank. If indexed pages aren't growing with your content production, something's wrong.
Average position (for target keywords)
Track movement over time for your priority keywords.
- Positions 50-100 → 20-30: Progress, keep going
- Positions 20-30 → 10-15: Real traction
- Positions 10-15 → 1-5: Winning
Backlinks acquired
New referring domains pointing to your site.
Track: SEO tool (monthly new referring domains)
Why it matters: Links build authority. Growing backlink profile indicates authority building.
Tier 4: Vanity metrics (mostly ignore)
These metrics look impressive but don't drive business decisions.
Domain Authority / Domain Rating
These are third-party estimates, not Google metrics. Ahrefs DR and Moz DA are calculated differently and mean different things.
Problem: You can have high DA and no traffic. You can have low DA and great rankings.
Use for: Rough competitive comparison. Nothing more.
Total keywords ranking
"You rank for 10,000 keywords!"
Misleading because:
- Most are position 50-100 (no traffic)
- Many are variations of the same thing
- Doesn't indicate business value
Better metric: Keywords ranking page 1 for target terms.
Tool "health scores"
"SEO score: 78/100"
These are made up. Google doesn't use them. A site with 78 score can outrank a site with 95 score easily.
Use for: Identifying specific issues. Ignore the aggregate number.
Backlink counts (total)
"500,000 backlinks!"
Total backlink count is inflated by site-wide links and low-quality links. Referring domains is more meaningful.
Keyword density
Hasn't mattered for a decade. Google understands semantics. Ignore any tool flagging keyword density issues.
What to track and when
Weekly (15-30 minutes)
Quick health check:
- Organic traffic this week vs. last week (GA4)
- Impressions trend (Search Console)
- Any significant ranking changes (tool or manual)
- Pages indexed (Search Console)
Monthly (1-2 hours)
Comprehensive review:
- Month-over-month traffic growth
- Conversions from organic
- New page 1 rankings
- CTR changes
- New backlinks/referring domains
- Content published vs. planned
- Top performing content (traffic + conversions)
Quarterly (strategy level)
- Revenue/leads attributed to organic
- Organic CAC vs. other channels
- Competitive position changes
- Strategy effectiveness (what's working/not)
- Next quarter priorities
Annually
- Total organic revenue contribution
- Year-over-year traffic growth
- SEO ROI calculation
- Strategy review and planning
Building an SEO dashboard
Track these in one place:
From Google Search Console:
- Total impressions (last 7 days, 28 days)
- Total clicks
- Average CTR
- Average position
- Pages indexed
From Google Analytics:
- Organic sessions
- Organic conversions (goal completions)
- Organic revenue (if e-commerce)
- Organic conversion rate
From SEO tool:
- Keywords ranking (page 1, page 2, etc.)
- Referring domains (and growth)
- Position tracking for target keywords
Internal tracking:
- Content published
- Backlinks built
- Revenue attributed to organic
Reading the metrics together
Metrics tell stories when combined:
"Impressions up, clicks flat"
Your visibility is growing, but CTR is dropping. Likely causes:
- Ranking for more keywords but at lower positions
- Title/descriptions need improvement
- New rankings aren't matching user intent
"Traffic up, conversions flat"
You're attracting visitors who don't convert. Likely causes:
- Ranking for informational (not commercial) keywords
- Content doesn't guide to conversion
- Wrong audience being attracted
"Rankings up, traffic flat"
You're winning keywords that don't drive volume. Likely causes:
- Targeting too-low-volume keywords
- Long-tail wins without head term progress
- Position 8-10 for high-volume terms (minimal click share)
"Everything flat for 6+ months"
No progress despite effort. Likely causes:
- Not enough content being published
- Targeting impossible keywords
- Technical issues blocking indexing
- Competitive gap too large
The metrics that predict success
If you could only track three things:
- Organic conversions — The only metric that directly shows business value
- Impressions — Early indicator that visibility is growing
- Content published — Leading activity metric (effort going in)
Everything else is supporting detail. Don't let metrics overload distract from these fundamentals.
Common measurement mistakes
Tracking too much: Dashboard with 50 metrics = nothing actionable. Pick 5-7 core metrics.
Checking too often: Daily ranking checks create anxiety, not insights. Weekly is enough.
Ignoring conversions: Traffic is vanity if it doesn't convert. Always pair traffic with conversion data.
Obsessing over third-party scores: DA, DR, health scores — these are proxies, not goals.
Not segmenting: "Organic traffic" includes branded and non-branded. Break them apart for real insights.
Short time horizons: Monthly comparisons are noisy. Quarterly and annual trends tell the story.
The bottom line
Track business metrics: Revenue and conversions from organic. This is why you do SEO.
Monitor outcome metrics: Traffic, rankings, growth rate. These prove SEO is working.
Watch leading indicators: Impressions, indexed pages, CTR. These predict future results.
Ignore vanity metrics: DA scores, total backlinks, keyword density, health scores. These distract.
Build a simple dashboard. Check weekly. Review deeply monthly. Adjust strategy quarterly. That's enough.
Related reading:
- How Long Does SEO Take? — Setting timeline expectations
- SEO Content Strategy — Strategy that metrics can measure
- Free SEO Tools That Work — Tools for tracking